Welcome to Windows 7 Forums. Our forum is dedicated to helping you find support and solutions for any problems regarding your Windows 7 PC be it Dell, HP, Acer, Asus or a custom build. We also provide an extensive Windows 7 tutorial section that covers a wide range of tips and tricks.

Even when you have configured Windows to display all file extensions, some still remain hidden. This allows potentially dangerous files to be masked as safe files, fooling the user into executing them. This tweak helps expose those file extensions.

For example, a file could be displayed as "readme.txt" in Windows Explorer, when it fact it is really named "readme.txt.shs" but since the ".shs" portion of the filename is hidden it is impossible to tell it apart from a simple text file. Then once a user double-clicks to open this file, instead of seeing a text page as expected, the file will be executed by Windows as a scrap object and potentially harm the system.

To remove the potential to hide files, open your registry and using the search function find each occurrence of a value named "NeverShowExt". Delete each "NeverShowExt" value for the extensions you want to display.

It is helpful when scripting the creation of shortcut files to see that the extension was properly created. What I do as a work around is right click on the file and use "send to" from the context menu to open the file in an editor that shows the entire file name in the title bar. I sure wish that I could just see them by looking.

Although the need might not arise very often it would be better if a method was available to show those files that are totally hidden - see recent thread in Security and how apparently the desktop.ini file in a folder stops the folder and files from being displayed. Only by using forensic like software can we see these. Perhaps an Explorer replacement can see these? Anyone know if this is correct?

Show Super Hidden File Extensions?

File Extensions - Hide or ShowHow to Hide or Show Known File Type Extensions in Windows 7
A file name extension is a set of characters added to the end of a file name that identifies the file type or format that determines what default program should open it. This will show you how to have Windows 7 hide or show known...

Tutorials

Show File Extensions and Hidden Files for all UsersHi,
I am trying to change the registry to show hidden files/extensions.
This is for an unattended install, so I don't want to do it manually for each user. I know I can change the registry for the current user, but I can't seem to find out how to do this system wide. I need to show hidden files...

General Discussion

show hidden folders show file extensions thru registryI am trying to setup a default user or machine setup for how win7 handles folder view options. I want show hidden folders to be set to on for all users and the hide extensions for know file types to be unchecked or turned off ffor all users (so extensions show)
I have located them in the registry...

General Discussion

fonts don't show file extensionsI've configured windows to NOT "hide file extensions" and it works in most folders...however when I go to the Windows/Fonts folder I can't get the extensions to show up. I can right click the font to find properties which shows the extension but I can't keep doing that for every one. Tried...

General Discussion

This is weird. A super-hidden file?I have set my folder options to "Show all Hidden Files". There is this folder with 160 files inside.
When I am inside the folder, select all 160 files, right-click, select Properties, it mentions that there are 160 files.
However when I am outside the folder, select the folder, right-click,...